


tell me again

by leafvillagebitch



Category: The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller
Genre: Fluff, I Love You, M/M, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-14
Updated: 2018-06-14
Packaged: 2019-05-23 09:54:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14932031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leafvillagebitch/pseuds/leafvillagebitch
Summary: The first time Patroclus and Achilles say "i love you."





	tell me again

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was born out of the conversation I had with Madeline Miller about whether or not they said "I love you." She said "of course they do," and told me that I could think about them saying i love you all the time so i wrote this :)
> 
> ❤️✌

The sun was beating down on them, sweat dripping from Achilles’s temple. He leaned down to waterfall to splash some cool water on his face, and flicked some in Patroclus’s direction. Patroclus jumped, and then smiled, and then returned the favor.

 

They had been at war for long enough to have settled into a routine; five days on and two days off, no fighting or raiding on holy days. Patroclus almost never joined him on the battlefield anymore; Achilles knew it made him uncomfortable, to see him covered in blood, to see him do what he was born to do. He knew Patroclus would go with him if he asked – he seldom asked.

 

They often spent their off days like this – alone together, stealing moments of privacy wherever they could. They had encountered this spot early on and claimed it as their own; even if another soldier had encountered it, they wouldn’t dare spend to time here.

 

He looked up just as Patroclus pulled off his tunic and dived into the pool below.

 

“Will you not join me, Achilles?” He yelled.

 

“Is that what you wish?”

 

“Yes!”

 

Achilles heart leapt at Patroclus’s smile. Unable to resist anything that might give Patroclus even the smallest bit of happiness, he peeled off his tunic and dove into the water below. He resurfaced in Patroclus’s arms.

 

“Patroclus,” he said, smiling.

 

“Yes?”

 

“I love you.” 

 

Patroclus’s eyes went wide; it was not something they had said before. It was known, both among the people at the camp and between each other, but it was not something they ever felt needed to be said. Truthfully, Achilles did not know why he said it now. It was simply what he felt, and he did not often stop himself from speaking his mind.

 

“I…” Patroclus’s voice shook. Not from hesitation, Achilles knew, but because Patroclus did not feel worthy. He thought he disgraced Achilles. Achilles would spend his whole life trying to convince Patroclus that the opposite was true; that Achilles was the unworthy one, that without him, Achilles would be nothing. He could not be best of the Greeks without his most beloved. 

 

“I love you, too.”

 

“Yes?”

 

“Yes,” Patroclus said, breathless.

 

Achilles smiled and shifted, and their mouths met, tentatively, as if it were their first kiss, and they had not long given up hope of keeping track of the kisses that each had stolen, or given freely, to the other. 

 

“Tell me again,” Achilles said. 

 

“I love you.”

 

Achilles kissed his cheek, “Tell me again,” he whispered. 

 

“I love you.”

 

He kissed Patroclus’s neck, “tell me again.”

 

“Achilles…”

 

Achilles pulled away from Patroclus for a moment, gazed at his perfect form, and ran his fingers along the sharp line of his jaw. 

 

“Please?” His voice had the desperation of a dying man pleading with the Gods, as if Patroclus’s words were keeping him afloat below the waterfall, and he knew Patroclus would oblige. 

 

“I love you, Achilles.”

 

Achilles tangled his hands in Patroclus’s hair and their mouths crashed together briefly before Achilles pulled back and started swimming to the shore; Patroclus followed swiftly behind him. 

 

“I love you too, Patroclus! But enough of this, we must head back to camp.”

 

“Could we... stay a while longer? I do not think i am finished telling you how I love you.”

 

It was rare for Patroclus to ask for anything, so whenever he did, Achilles indulged him; it was usually something such as this - more time. They were always searching for more time.

 

“Of course.”

 

____

  
  


“Patroclus?”

 

“Yes, Achilles?”

 

They stood by the fire, meat roasting on a spit that Briseis had tended while they were out; she sat now, laughing with some of the soldiers. Achilles rested his hand on the small of Patroclus’s back and brushed a still-damp hair out of his face before he brought his lips to Patroclus’s; Patroclus tensed momentarily, but he quickly softened into Achilles as he had a thousand times before and would do a thousand times again. Achilles knew that they were stealing time, that they would anger the Gods, but Achilles would happily anger Apollo himself if it meant one more day, one more kiss, one more moment with Patroclus. 

 

“Patroclus, tell me again.”

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> So i really think that if they don't say it first thing in The Cave on Pelion that they just don't say it... for like. years, and I actually really like the concept of them not being able to say anything but the other's name during that scene in the cave, so that's where this came from.


End file.
